‘College GameDay’ Under Fire For Controversial Week 8 Location

With a handful of intriguing options for the location of “College GameDay” in Week 8, ESPN landed on Bloomington, Indiana for a matchup between the Indiana Hoosiers and Washington Huskies.

The decision wasn’t met without controversy. Some fans even accused ESPN of pandering to Lee Corso, an Indiana native who coached at IU from 1973 to 1982.

But the chief complaint among fans seemed to be picking a matchup that is likely to be low on entertainment value. Washington is 4-3 with losses against Iowa, Rutgers and Washington State, while Indiana’s starting quarterback Kurtis Rourke isn’t expected to play because of a hand injury.

College football fans didn’t hold back in letting “CGD” know they didn’t approve of its trip to Bloomington with a handful of better options on the table including Notre Dame-Navy, Texas-Vanderbilt and No. 8 LSU- No. 14 Texas A&M.

“Texas A&M v. LSU for control of the SEC was there. Texas-Vandy to see if Vandy can do it again was also there. And we go with this one? Just not sure about this pick…,” one fan said .

“This over a game where the winner literally gets first place in the sec its crazy,” another added .

“Navy and Notre Dame was right there,” a third said .

“Holy L, passing up on a matchup between LSU/A&M (top 15 SEC matchup) who have both won 6 straight games is stupid. I guess they’ve been to A&M already this year but still,” remarked another fan .

“LSU @ TAMU best ranked matchup, but ND @ Navy should've been the pick,” one user wrote .

“Should be going to Nashville. Shame,” another user commented .

“Vanderbilt officially misses out on College GameDay. Puzzling decision by the crew to go to see Indiana (starting QB is hurt) play Washington (barely above .500). Kurtis Rourke is ‘likely’ to miss the game,” exclaimed another .

“Indiana deserves it, but I think Vanderbilt deserved it more,” another fan chimed in .

While no explanation was given by ESPN or the “College GameDay” crew, it’s believed the show didn’t want pick Notre Dame-Navy because it’s being played at a neutral site, thus not capturing a true “GameDay” atmosphere.

With Texas suffering its first loss of the season on Saturday against Georgia, there’s no longer the intrigue of Vanderbilt possibly taking down the No. 1 team in the country for the second time in three weeks.

LSU-Texas A&M presumably wasn’t picked either because “College GameDay” was in College Station already earlier this season.

Related: ‘College GameDay’ Facing Backlash for Controversial Jokes Made During Show